Camping World Truck Race - Turn Five

The recently completed Camping World Truck race at Eldora Speedway was the best idea NASCAR has had in a long, long time. Trucks are, in my opinion, still NASCAR’s best offering with their no-holds-barred racing, slightly more edgy, and less politically correct persona than the other series. And Eldora, what can you say about that Mecca of dirt racing that hasn’t already been said? The concept seemed a winner from the get-go, destined to pack the house, and it did.

2/3

I loved the fact that they had qualifying and heat races to determine who made the race and where they started. The icing on the cake had to be the last chance qualifier when ARCA veteran Norm Benning drove the wheels (and right side) off his truck to make the race. If you didn’t see it you missed out on some of the most exciting racing thus far in any NASCAR series this season.

The race itself was really well done I thought. Sure, I read some complaints that they didn’t water in the track enough and let it go black slick way to soon, but considering the weight of the trucks too heavy of a track would have caused a mess. Consequently, they were almost forced to let it go black slick. Plus it forced the racers to really drive the trucks not just ride around. The whole thing was very entertaining and in the end Austin Dillon had ’em covered. I thought it was particularly cool that Dillon gave a shout out to Dale McDowell during his Victory Lane interview. McDowell has helped tutor Dillon on the finer points of dirt racing. It’s obviously worked, and not just for this race. If you’ve every seen Richard Childress’ grandson behind the wheel of a Late Model or a Modified you know exactly what I am talking about. If you haven’t trust me, I’ve seen both…impressive stuff.

NASCAR’s foray back to dirt for the first time in 40 years is a winner…almost

Now there was one thing that annoyed me about the whole “Mudsummer Classic.” Throughout the broadcast analysts waxed poetic about how the event shines a spotlight on the dirt racing/short track industry and that the industry would somehow benefit from NASCAR’s presence and Speed’s (Fox Sports 1 by the time you read this) broadcast. While that may be partially true, both of those organizations missed an absolute golden opportunity to be champions of motorsports in general. You see in between qualifying, the heats and last-chance qualifier there were exhibition Dirt Late Model races. That’s right, when the trucks were in the pits, traditional Late Models were apparently turning laps, but you never saw that on television. In fact, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t even mentioned.

Eighteen Late Models took the green in the feature with some pretty well known names like Jeep Van Wormer, Tyler Reddick, and the aforementioned McDowell. It was just too bad that the television audience never saw it. NASCAR and Speed should have incorporated the Late Model races into their broadcast. It would have exposed that type of racing to a whole new audience and maybe, just maybe, some kid somewhere watching would beg his dad to take him to their local track. And maybe that happened multiple times over…if it did, wouldn’t our sport see some growth? I think so.